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RE: "Evening out columns" problem

Well, actually, from my perspective (with my "circa 1987" html skills), it looks okay, but I'm wondering if there is not a better way.

In this "online magazine" there are two columns in the main part of the page, under the standard block at the top. The left column varies with the length of the article(s); the right column, I try to keep the Articles at the top of the column. To do that, I use blocks of <br>'s, which I'm sure it an horrific practice to a professional designer.

Is there some other, more professional, way of evening the columns out?

There is no easy way to do this but more importantly, there is totally no need from a designer’s point of view. Why should you have the last piece of information in the right column as far down as the last few lines of the article in the left column? That’s wasted “real estate” space on the page.

A contemporary approach would be to have the right column content stay fixed within the viewport while the page is being scrolled, so it’s always all there and accessible. However, this is nothing for amateur developers and –besides requireing JavaScript – requires a whole lot of other considerations (i. e. viewport size/overflow etc.). So, for your specific case I would say just let the content flow as it comes. And if the right column is shorter than the left one then it shall be so. The simplest solution for a quick jump to the top of the right column would be a “back to top” anchor link at the bottom of the viewport.